Pathfinder Player Companion: Faiths of Balance (PFRPG)

There are those who walk a middle road, the heroes to whom questions of morality come second to some greater goal. It is to these bold individuals that the gods of balance offer their hands. Whether it’s the god of cities and civilization or the guardians of the wild places, the goddess of death or the twisted and insane lord of magic, the neutral gods of Golarion are every bit as active as their righteous or evil counterparts. Often misunderstood, their worshipers run the gambit from enlightened scholars to bloodthirsty paragons of battle, all bound together by the same knowledge: that there are distinctions more important than good versus evil.

Faiths of Balance presents a player-friendly overview of the neutral-aligned religions and faiths of the Pathfinder campaign setting, along with new rules and information to help players customize pious characters in both flavor and mechanics.

Inside this book, you'll find:

Information on each of the major neutral gods and his or her corresponding religion, including what’s expected of adventurers of various classes, ways for the faithful to identify each other, taboos, devotions and ceremonies, church hierarchies, holy texts, religious holidays, and more

An overview of the ancient Green Faith, to which many druids still hold

New character traits to help represent and cement a character’s background in the church

New feats for holy warriors

New god-specific spells for a wide variety of spellcasters

New magic items designed specifically for members of the faith

New religious organizations and military orders, plus a paladin code for the chosen warriors of Abadar, god of cities

Details on minor neutral deities, powerful fey entities, and more!

Written by Colin McComb

Each bimonthly 32-page Pathfinder Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

So, here's my concern: these 7 gods have (all?) had writeups in other sources. I know off the top of my head that Abadar, Gorum, Gozreh and I think, Pharasma have been in APs. Those were pretty extensive articles, so it makes me wonder: is this just a collection of those articles with a little bit of crunch thrown in for the players? Or... is there some further exploration of the setting (major temples, cities favorable to neutral deities, relationships to factions and organizations, etc.) that moves each god's story along?

Note: I'm not a habitual complainer. I like what I've read so far, and that's why I'm a subscriber. I'm just bringing up these concerns in the hopes that it's not too late to get those involved to consider the perspective of long-time readers.

My understand is this will be new stuff. Focusing on the church and faith of each god and less on the god's themselves. I might be wrong but that was my understanding of what these books are about.

Correct.

An excerpt from the outline:

how the church can tie into your background (Cayden has a lot of orphanages, etc.)
worshiper’s outlook
iconography, sacred animals, sacred plants, etc. (think 1st ed Deities & Demigods tables)
sayings
temple: what’s the main temple/best-known temple/mecca/pilgrimage site for your church?
clothing
taboos
ways to identify yourself (tattoos, jewelry, secret handshakes, genuflection)
why worship this deity?
why be an adventurer?
Your goals in life
Atoning and making penance
Interaction with other faiths
perspective for all 11 (18?) classes--why be a barbarian who worships this deity, or a fighter, etc., when you don't get spells
what races usually worship him
in what countries is he popular?
a character trait for each deity (like the regional traits)
Where you can find more info on this deity

BTW Pharasma doesn't yet have a god writeup in an AP. I know this because I haven't written it yet. ;)

...is this just a collection of those articles with a little bit of crunch thrown in for the players?...

No matter how unusual the subject of a Pathfinder Player Companion may seem, they always have a set formula (with the Combat, Faith, Magic, and Social sections), so using them to reprint articles like the ones you're talking about really wouldn't make any sense.

So, here's my concern: these 7 gods have (all?) had writeups in other sources. I know off the top of my head that Abadar, Gorum, Gozreh and I think, Pharasma have been in APs. Those were pretty extensive articles, so it makes me wonder: is this just a collection of those articles with a little bit of crunch thrown in for the players? Or... is there some further exploration of the setting (major temples, cities favorable to neutral deities, relationships to factions and organizations, etc.) that moves each god's story along?

Note: I'm not a habitual complainer. I like what I've read so far, and that's why I'm a subscriber. I'm just bringing up these concerns in the hopes that it's not too late to get those involved to consider the perspective of long-time readers.

I totally understand your concern, and more to the point, Paizo does too. When I was writing up the Faiths of Purity book, Sean made clear to me that the book was not to be a rewrite of the major faiths, and in fact, I was allowed perhaps 7% of the article to summarize the god quickly. The rest of the god-article was primarily what it meant to worship a god, who was most likely to do so, what various classes thought of the god, and how to identify other worshipers.

While I did use the extensive articles as reference material for the gods and their churches, this book is focused on the average worshiper. Essentially, to use a real-world analogy, this would be a book talking about the Catholic experience and how it relates to the church, rather than a book detailing the doctrinal points of the faith and how the cardinals relate to the Pope.

Oh, wait. I don't need to be coy about this; I see I'm announced as writing it. Well then, yes, this is not a book about the religion, but rather how the religion is practiced. And right now I'm writing about Nethys.

Oh, wait. I don't need to be coy about this; I see I'm announced as writing it. Well then, yes, this is not a book about the religion, but rather how the religion is practiced. And right now I'm writing about Nethys.

Clerics of Nethys demand better treatment! Clerics (and other priests, and occasionally even *monks*) of the other nineteen big gods, and even some losers like Hanspur the Water Rat, get some neat perks, like this spell or that added to their spell list. Even some mere demon lords get something funky, like the ability to use Animal Domain spells on mindless vermin.

Clerics of Nethys get a *restriction* on casting Imbue with Spell Ability. Boo!

All this, and favored weapon - quarterstaff! :)

[Technically, I'm against any clergy getting these sorts of perks, as it was a messy business back in 1st and 2nd edition, and led to nonsense like spells that only followers of a single god could cast, which, IMO, is a pretty dubious use of wordcount, but since it's already a done deal, I'm all for Nethys getting some love, too!]

Oh, wait. I don't need to be coy about this; I see I'm announced as writing it. Well then, yes, this is not a book about the religion, but rather how the religion is practiced. And right now I'm writing about Nethys.

Clerics of Nethys demand better treatment! Clerics (and other priests, and occasionally even *monks*) of the other nineteen big gods, and even some losers like Hanspur the Water Rat, get some neat perks, like this spell or that added to their spell list. Even some mere demon lords get something funky, like the ability to use Animal Domain spells on mindless vermin.

Clerics of Nethys get a *restriction* on casting Imbue with Spell Ability. Boo!

All this, and favored weapon - quarterstaff! :)

[Technically, I'm against any clergy getting these sorts of perks, as it was a messy business back in 1st and 2nd edition, and led to nonsense like spells that only followers of a single god could cast, which, IMO, is a pretty dubious use of wordcount, but since it's already a done deal, I'm all for Nethys getting some love, too!]

Well, Sean will kill me if I focus on clerics here, but I CAN guarantee you two new traits for the lover of all things Nethys. Oh. And what's the adjective for Nethys, anyway? Nethyian? Nethysian? Nethystics?

Also, Sean is going to send over his extended writeup for Pharasma to me any day now (note to Sean: HINT HINT), so that material will be getting integrated as well.

I should probably get off the messageboards and direct this energy to actual writing.

Update: The faiths are done. Now it's onto the "short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign."

Except that the traits are folded into the faiths directly. At least in the version I'll be turning over. Who knows what magic lurks in the dark heart of Paizo?

Yeah, I'm also intrested in Paladin codes for Abadar. Unfortunately, by then, we'll probably finish Council of Thieves where I'm playing Paladin of Abadar, but still would like to see them at least... I think James mentioned in Faiths of Purity topic that only LG, NG and LN gods can have paladins, does that mean we will see paladin codes for Abadar paladins?

Yeah, I'm also intrested in Paladin codes for Abadar. Unfortunately, by then, we'll probably finish Council of Thieves where I'm playing Paladin of Abadar, but still would like to see them at least... I think James mentioned in Faiths of Purity topic that only LG, NG and LN gods can have paladins, does that mean we will see paladin codes for Abadar paladins?

I just glanced through the new faiths book and I am very happy to have something to give to my players when they ask about a god that is tailored for them. And I like the information contained in the book. I cannot wait for this one to be released.

OK, possible dumb question...does this book address the lack of a Neutral and/or Balance domain?

Ooh, I pray for such a thing to never exist! It's enough of a chore picking non-extremist dieties for my clerics, so that I don't have to deal with almost half of Domain choices being Chaos, Good, Evil or Law (which, granted, don't suck quite as hard as they did in 3.0, but they still aren't exactly sexy or distinctive).

Logically, there should probably be such a thing, but I sure don't want to see it!

Every diety with a N alignment component would have to lose a Domain to make room for the new 'Neutral' Domain, and that would make me sad.